Shoes From Around The World

St. Crispins, Photo Courtesy Of: Zimmermann & Kim

I find it very fascinating to examine the different styles that come from all of the different shoemakers from around the world. Each country has its own unique style, look and feel to their shoes. No two countries really duplicate each other. Sure, you have the French and the Italians who love a pointier shoe that many people feel resemble the same styling. But in reality, aside from that elongated toe, their styling is miles apart from each other. Same thing with the English and the Americans, of which I believe there is much influence involved from how the Americans make their shoes, with respects to English craftsmanship and look. Yet, there are differences. And while I have probably put all of the makers listed below, on the blog at some point or another, I have never really thought to list them all in one post, in order to give you a solid piece of easily tangible information. With this at the tip of your fingers, I will try to make it as easy as possible for you to have at least one shoemaker that you can seek out when you go on your shoe shopping holidays!

For clarification, most of the brands listed will be made in the country that they are listed under, with some exceptions (as listed)

United States

Alden, Picture Courtesy Of: Leather Soul

Bespoke: Craig Corvin, The London Shoemaker (migrated to US from London), Perry Ercolino, DWF II, Don Ville
RTW: Allen Edmonds, Alden, Barker Black (English made),

England

Gaziano & Girling, Picture Courtesy Of: Leffot

Bespoke & RTW: Gaziano & Girling, George Cleverley, John Lobb (St. James =Bespoke, JL Paris = RTW), Foster & Son, Trickers (I believe)

Bespoke Only: Carreducker, Various Freelance makers, i.e. Cliff Roberts, James Taylor & Son
RTW: Edward Green, Crockett & Jones, Alfred Sargent (Handgrade), Church's, Grenson (Handgrade line), Cheaney, Barker, Lodger   

Italy

Bespoke shoe by Stefano Bemer

Bespoke & RTW: Stefano Bemer, Riccardo Bestetti (RTW in the works), Mannina, Paolo Scafora, Silvano Lattanzi
Bespoke Only: Gatto (not entirely sure if he is still alive), Hidetaka Fukaya (AKA Il Micio), Roberto Ugolini, Antonio Pio Mele, Saskia
RTW: Enzo Bonafe, Silvano Sassetti, StefanoBi, Scarpe Di Bianco (found in the states), Sutor Mantellassi, Bontoni (found mostly in the States), Angelo Galasso, a.Testoni, Artioli, Santoni

France

Corthay

Bespoke & RTW: Pierre Corthay, Berluti, John Lobb Paris, Massaro Bottier, Aubercy, Altan Bottier, Clairvoy
Bespoke Only: Anthony Delos, Dimitri Bottier (Gomez), Gerald Thibau, Pascal Carno
RTW: Septieme Largeur, Mark Guyot, JM Weston, Matthew Cookson (English born, French inspired), Caulaincourt, Carlos Santos

Spain

Bespoke Shoes by Norman Vilalta

Bespoke: Norman Vilalta
RTW: George's, Carmina, Enrile (mainly MTO), Magnanni, Meermin

Greater Europe

Bespoke Shoes by Jan Kielman

Austria: Rudolf Scheer, Maftei (also in Romania), St. Crispins (Romanian made), Balint, Materna
Poland: Jan Kielman
Germany: Dieter Kuckelkorn, Klemann
Croatia: Strugar
Norway: J.P. Myhre
Switzerland: Bally, Walter Steiger
Sweden: Janne Melkersson
Hungary: Laszlo Vass, Koronya, David Balazic

Japan

Bespoke Shoes by Koji Suzuki

Bespoke: Koji Suzuki, Saion, Imai Hiroki, Corno Blu, Masaru Okuyama, Guild of Crafts, Daizo Emori
RTW: Perfetto, Otsuka M-5


As you can see, there are many shoemakers around the world, and even way more than listed here. It is always a pleasure to discover new ones, so if you know of some good ones that I have not listed, please feel free to share. I am particularly curious about the shoe trade in South America, as I have never heard of anyone from that region. If you happen to ever have enough time to go through all of these, it truly is amazing to see how the styles differ from one country to the next. As you can obviously see, I did not attach links to these, because it would have doubled the time in order to do this post, but thats what Google is for my friends. Anyway, I hope that everyone gets a chance to discover something new with this post....

All the best,

-Justin, "The Shoe Snob"